Hi Y'alll

So I just sent my letter to president and only have a few minutes to finish with this letter.

 

So the schedule here in my mission is that we start at 7:30 am and go to bed at 11:30.  we do this because people are more active at night than they are during they day because stuff starts shutting down at like 2-4 pm for lunch.  We do our planning on a monthly basis and not in the transfer week mode.  We still move every 6 weeks, but we plan our goals to be in a month.  Our goal as a mission is 650 baptisms a year and 60 a month.  We have a few people in our area who are really close.  We could have as many as 8 people with elder westfalla and I for these next two months.  It has been a fun week, but a hard week too because Ï really want to speak and help out in the lessons but I can´t because i don´t know what is being said.  It´s frustrating sometimes, but I try my best with what i have.  Today we are cleaning our apartment like it´s nobodies business because we have some bugs in our cabinets and i had to throw away some food because they got into it.  Boy, these elders need to know how to clean.  Well, I need to go and hope you all have a great week wherever you are.

 

ps:  The picture is of the bishop's son who left to argentina with the hermanas in the city.

 

 

Hello Family !!!!! (from September 21, 2014)

So this week has been super crazy because I have no idea what I´m doing and I don´t even know what to say to investigators.  This spanish culture is strange and the streets here are super gross.  pets just go whereever and on every street corner.  It ALWAYS smells like cigarette smoke, and I hate the smell of smoke.  But what can you do?

So we had district meeting on thursday and i got to meet with the other missionaries in my district.  There are ten of us and two of us are new from the mtc.  Our district is the Valencia District and in our city it´s a ward of about 100+ members.  Last night we had a missionary leave from the ward.  Anyway, after the meeting we had pizza at dominos and boy that was super good. I broke my soda fast this week when i just had the desire to have sprite and bought a bottle at the store here.  I remember why i stopped drinking soda; it´s so good and i can´t stop.  our apartment is nice and kind of new, but we have really bad lighting there.  i hate it because it gives me a headache just trying to read.  I´ve been super busy that I haven´t had time to unpack.  We do have a washer though.  

On friday we had weekly planning and that was super long because we had to go extra long because i don´t know really anything.  We finally got out of the piso (apartment) and did some member visiting and met with an investigator named Amilio.  It´s hard to teach when i can speak very little and i can´t even understand what these people are saying because they speak super fast.  I have to focus super hard to pick up a word or two.

on saturday we went to the church to play sports.  By the way, our church is built like the ones in the US, but like cut in half.  It´s super new, like 2 weeks new.  It even made the paper here. so yeah, we played sports there and had cake because it was someone´s birthday.  we helped wash one of the member’s car at a gas station.

on sunday we went to 10am church and had priesthood class first followed by sunday school, and finally sacrament meeting. A nonmember came in after church and asked for a blessing and so the bishop did that.  We went to the Rojas’ house for lunch and had spaghetti and salad.  we taught about the book of mormon to this french guy who was living with the members.  My companion taught and i just bore my testimony.  We did teach a man named Pedro who is this catholic old man who just walked in the church that night and wanted to pray in the chapel.  We were able to teach him the 1st lesson, which was cool because he was super receptive to the spirit.

So that´s been my week.  oh yeah, on thursdays, we teach an english class and it would be nice if you guys could send me some grammar stuff in my emails.

I love you all so much and wish you guys a super week.  i´ll write you again on monday.  Sorry but no pictures this week because these computers do not have a memory card holder thing so i´ll have to buy one and use it next week.  right now it´s raining and i´m loving it.

Love,

Elder Gonzalez

 

I'm Here (From September 18, 2014)

I made it to my first area and I´m just loving it.  my trainer is Elder Westfall and he is super awesome.  He´s from Southern California and he´s the best.  My first area is Castellón.  We´re right off  the coast, but we can´t go anywhere near the beach.  It´s just the two of us in the nice appartment and we have another set of sisters in our city.  Today we traveled to Valencia and had our first district meeting.  That was cool.  So we travled here from Barcelona and we took a 2-1/2 hour train ride from Barcelona and then took another two hour train ride to Valencia and 2 hours back, so i´m a little tired, but it's all good.  i´m just enjoying everything here.  i only have a few minutes to write, but on monday i´ll write more.  hope you all have a wonderful day and hope everything is good in your guys lives.  

 

Love Elder Gonzalez

 

ps i´ll send you my address on monday.

Safe Arrival to Barcelona

Dear families of our new missionaries,

     We are pleased to inform you that your son has safely arrived in the Spain Barcelona Mission.  Hermana Pace and I, along with the two assistants, met him at the train station.  The group of missionaries we received is full of wonderful young men and women, ready to go to work. Their enthusiasm reflects their love for the Savior and we are grateful for the privilege of guiding them along as they serve the Lord.

     Every area in the Spain Barcelona Mission is unique and beautiful, rich in history and tradition.  More importantly, each city is full of children of our Heavenly Father, waiting to hear the glad news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

     Thank you for the trust you have put in us to shepherd your son.  Please know that we feel a great responsibility to guide and protect “our” missionaries.  We love your sons and daughters as if they were our own.  With the Lord’s help, we intend to make their mission experience in Barcelona the most memorable time of their lives.

Sincerely,

President and Hermana Pace

 

Hi Everyone

From September 15, 2014

Hi everyone!!  I only have a few minutes to write because today is a pretty busy day and wish I could slow things down, but I can´t.  I packed a little on thursday and it made things easier for today.  So yeah our train leaves at 4 am tomorrow and so we´ll get a little sleep.  I can´t wait to meet my president tomorrow and start my mission.

so last week we stayed at the mtc for pday and just played soccer for like 2 hours and did some packing and took naps (except me because I wanted to study) and listen to a talk from holland from may.  He blows your brains out with his voice.  On friday we said goodbye to one of our teachers, Hermano Lopèz, and just had our last real day in the MTC.  On saturday I had a fun time at the park with my companion Elder Johnson.  We met a lot of people and did lots of talking.  It got me excited to leave for the field.  On sunday we had a great lesson from president Lovell and that night we had a talk from president and sister Jackson from the Madrid spain mission.  They were here because they were doing interviews for the madrid missionaries.  Today has been orientation on "how to stuff..."

Well, I´ve got to go and wish you the best of luck.  I will write to you on monday I think.  I´ll send you my address soon.

Love Elder Gonzalez.

 

Tuesday's the Day!! (from September 11, 2014)

So on tuesday I leave by train at 4 in the morning to Barcelona!!!!!!  I can´t wait to go.  I love it here, but can´t wait to get out and go preach the word of God to all the world.  That means I have to pack (dang, that means washing and folding my clothes, and mom´s not here).  So that´s cool.  On monday, we´ll email that day, so look for that.

 

So last thursday I went to a museum and looked at some spanish art, mostly naked people and paintings of christ, mary and stuff like that.  Sadly, I couldn´t take pictures, but I did see that painting of "les niños" or something like that.  We watched a re-run talk of Elder Ballard from june, and he talked about not paying attention to the noises of the world.  So that was cool.

 

At the park this week, I talked to only 4 people and this one guy for an hour and a half.  It was great because he spoke in spanish and I just listened because I had no idea what he was saying.  He was smoking a cigarette when we were talking to him.  He didn´t accept anything we gave him, but we planted a seed.

 

Sunday we had a nice fast and testimony meeting.  The 60 of us were in a small room about the size of the the young women's room.  That´s our sacrament room.  we watched another video, a good video.  Also, it was my companion´s and mtc president´s birthday.  Also, shout out to sam, happy  birthday!!!

 

On monday we listened to a small devotional with president hinckley´s son which was super cool!  It was also the temple president's 50th anniversery. 

 

yesterday an assistant to pres pace came down from barcelona and talked to us for a few minutes to get us excited to go and serve. 

 

These past few weeks have been blending into one long dream.  I just need to get out and start teaching.  I love you all and pray for you guys every day and can´t wait to see you all when i get home. 

love,
Elder gonzalez.

1-1/2 Weeks Left (September 4, 2014)

Sorry if this letter is short, but I had to wait for 15 minutes for my computer to stop typing double letters.  Also my computer didn´t even turn on so I had to use a different computer, plus this computer is running slow.  What a morning.

So I went to the temple this morning which was a lot of fun.  But it´s hard to pay attention when you’re half asleep.

I loving the MTC, but I really want to leave and be out in the field.  We do 2 lessons a day and we go to the park every saturday and talk with real people and have real conversations, but there is so much I need to learn.

There hasn`t been a whole lot going on here in the MTC life, but I´ll do my best.  Last saturday we went to the park and my new companion was Elder Brog.  We talked with only 4 people.  On the metro to the park we talked to this Philippine lady who spoke English, got to the park and talked to another Philippine lady for 1-1/2 hours.  She was a blast to talk to because she was so receptive to the spirit, and she spoke English so that was fun.  On the ride back we met a man on the metro who was a member and was going to the temple. So yeah that´s the park.

On sunday we had a great day.  We had sacrament, a devotional with president lovell (who is such a nice guy.  I love being here at THis mtc because we see all of the missionaries and know most of them by name.  We get to talk to our president every day.  I love it here.)  And at night we had a guest speaker.  Actually it was speakers.  It was a family who became members years ago and raised a wonderful family.  It´s nice to see that what we do out here truly makes a difference.

THis week has been same old classroom work and studying.  One cool thing this week was that the native Russian speakers left after being here for two weeks and 6 new native Italian speakers came in.  this makes me want to go!!!!

So yeah, nothing much happened this week.  Oh, by the way don´t send me any more letters by snail mail because I´ll be gone by the time they get here.  Also dad, your dear elder doesn´t work here very well because they mail it from Provo and it took a week to get here.  Also, mom the picture on the card was a picture of the round-about where the city of Madrid celebrates when Real Madrid wins.  Sorry for no pictures this week because when the pictures load, it really slows down the computers and I start typing double.

I love you all and pray for you guys every day.  Sorry, but I need to go.  Today I´m going to a museum for p-day!  I´ll send some pics next week.

Love Elder Gonzalez